Ballot issues could be big for small municipalities

Vinita Park mayor James McGee, pictured here in December 2015, is backing a merger between his city and neighboring Vinita Terrace.

File photo | Jason Rosenbaum | St. Louis Public Radio

Residents of two North County municipalities will vote on Tuesday whether to become one.

The governing bodies of Vinita Park and Vinita Terrace jointly submitted an application for merger to the St. Louis Boundary Commission in April. That board voted in June to put the merger on the November ballot.

Vinita Park — population 1,900 people – already provides a number of city services to Vinita Terrace, which has a population of 278 people. The two towns are separated only by Page and Midland boulevards, and were marketed jointly in the 1920s. If voters in both cities say yes, Vinita Terrace will cease to exist. The merger would become final in April.

Vinita Park is the area highlighted. Vinita Terrace on its eastern border.

Credit Map by Brent Jones | St. Louis Public Radio

At a hearing on the proposed merger in May, Vinita Terrace trustee Mary Tevlin encouraged her constituents to vote yes.

"We’ve done a lot of things together from National Nights Out, to picnics to lots of organizational things, church things. It’s always been kind of a dual community," she said.

Dan Clasby, the chairman of the Vinita Terrace board and James McGee, the mayor of Vinita Park, both said they had not heard of any organized opposition to the merger.

Twin Oaks incorporation

Also on Tuesday, the 290 registered voters in Twin Oaks will decide whether they want to become the state's newest city.

Incorporating as a fourth-class city would give Twin Oaks officials more taxing power. But village chairman Russ Fortune says the vote isn’t a money grab, but a response to a 2015 bill that would have forced all villages to discorporate.

Twin Oaks is asking residents to change its status.

Credit Map by Brent Jones | St. Louis Public Radio

"That concerned us greatly, because since 1938, we have very much enjoyed our local governance and local representation," he said. Twin Oaks maintains its own streets and does its own leaf pick-up, Fortune said, and the quality of those services would decline if the village no longer exists.

The disincorporation bill, sponsored by state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, D-St. Louis, went nowhere.

Updated June 29 with ballot approval - The St. Louis County Boundary Commission had approved a proposed merger between Vinita Park and Vinita Terrace. The issue now goes on the ballot in both towns. No one who spoke at a public hearing in May opposed the idea.

Vinita Park already provides a number of services, including policing, for its smaller neighbor.

Updated with decision to appeal - A Cole County judge has rejected major parts of the most significant public policy achievement in the wake of Michael Brown’s shooting death.

It’s a decision that serves a major victory for African-American-led St. Louis County municipalities, and likely places the future of municipal governance overhaul in the hands of the Missouri Supreme Court.